Honeywell PUR HEV685W Top Fill Console Humidifier, Large, White

I was skeptical about all of the humidifiers on the market. All seemed to have a bit too many negative reviews. This unit had minimal negative reviews, mainly complaints about having to jiggle the second reservoir to get it to switch over once the first reservoir runs out, or needing to have the unit perfectly level.I’ve not had any problems with the reservoirs switching over automatically when one runs dry. Works every time. I have it sitting fairly level but in no way perfectly level as some reviewers say is necessary.I love the large water supply. About 1.25 gallons in each reservoir for a total of a little over 2.5 gallons. I use a gallon plastic picture to fill from the top.There’s no humidity meter. I thought it would great to have but this is a larger capacity unit that’s in a 2900 square foot house. The humidity might be higher near the unit than it is farther away. So I bought a good $9 temp/humidity gauge for where I am most concerned about keeping the humidity at a good level. So no gauge on the humidifier doesn’t matter to me any more.I have this unit set on the highest humidity and fan speed. It sits downstairs where I can fill it with filtered water from the kitchen faucet. I put it as the base of the stairs to keep the upstairs bedrooms humidified at night. The humid air rises and keeps the upstairs very comfortable. Great, because otherwise I’d have to put the unit upstairs and then either use unfiltered water or be running up and down stairs. Noise is not loud even on the highest setting. Pretty quiet on the lower settings.I’m very happy with the result. Humidity levels now are in the 45 to 50 percent range, which is perfect. My lungs feel great and breathing is much easier. Plus I don’t wake up to dry sticky congestion that takes two hours to clear out every day. I wake up as clear as when I went to bed.One more thing... it takes a while for the humidity level in the house to increase. It was in the mid 20% to low 30% before I bought this unit. It immediately raised the humidity a few % but took a few days to get up into the 40’s. That’s to be expected because when you start out, the walls, flooring, furniture, cabinets, beds, etc will soak up some of the moisture in the air until their moisture levels raise too.This unit has the capacity and features to make it perfect for me. I’m seldom so happy with purchases as I am with this. I’d have been happy with it at twice the price.

We purchased this humidifier in Feb 2022 after enduring really dry Winter conditions in our house that our built-in furnace unit just couldn't keep up with. So, we're about 1 month into using it and it's been doing a really good job.Things we like:1. Pretty good looking design makes it ok to leave in our living areas (compared to other very ugly ones on the market)2. Multiple speeds are really good to adjust the levels, and at the lowest speed it's barely audible in the room. This last point makes it easy to leave running anytime of the day and in the living room without really bothering anyone.3. The filters are pretty easy to install / change and they're available on Amazon and other retailers at a decent price.4. The 2 water tanks are also pretty easy to use, and because they're smaller -- they don't get too heavy when filled.5. The adjustable humidity levels seem to work very well, though we did add a couple of Acurite humidity monitors in the house to verify what levels we're at.And this is probably the one thing that we don't like: no digital read out on the humidity level, means you do have to adjust the dial until you find you're at the level you want. It seems like this would be a pretty simple design addition.We did also add some felt sliders to the bottom as this sits on hardwood floors in our main room, but overall we're pretty pleased with the performance so far and recommend this as a good solution.

TL;DR: Sort of gets the job done, but has some drawbacks.I have it set to somewhere around halfway on the humidity setting dial and it runs pretty much 24/7. It is winter, in Buffalo, but right now it's 37F outside at 77% humidity, my heat (hat water baseboard, not forced air) is set at 72F, and the humidity in the house seems to struggle to hit 40% with this thing running continuously.Now, I DO have a pretty big, open floor plan - close to 1000 sq ft, almost entirely open, end to end, which is why I bought such a big humidifier. My skin hasn't been as dry as it normally gets in the winter, but it also hasn't been as cold and dry as usual outside. This cold water, evaporative system also puts out a cool breeze, by design, but I'm sure that drops the temp in the house, kicking the furnace on more, which drops the humidity, etc.... System is fighting itself. Probably better for hot, dry climates. Kind of wish I had gotten a warm mist setup.First filter got dry, crusty, and started smelling a little odd (I flip it once every day or two) after less than a month, so I ordered another. The new one (from Honeywell) comes with the blue layer on the outside. Hopefully that helps. It is also a LITTLE taller than the plain white paper one that came with the humidifier and the fan housing assembly makes contact with it before it fully seats on the base. I'm sure that will change over time, but maybe that small bit of compression helps with the amount of humidity it can put out... Fingers crossed.Also, I run a pre-softener filter in the basement, and a 3-stage APEC system at the sink where I get water to fill this, HOPING to avoid going through filters like crazy, but that doesn't appear to be working. My softener hasn't been working at 100% for a while now, and I need to disconnect it and service it, and the filters under the sink are old and need to be replaced, but man... 30 days? That is NOT very long filter life... And at $15-20 per filter, I'm not thrilled with the performance so far.Last note - the fan isn't SUPER loud, but it does make some noise. I leave it on medium to keep the noise down a bit, but sometimes when I stop and start it, the fan makes a lot of noise and takes a while to quiet down. Just annoying, and for the price, is kind of disheartening.